There are typically three types of testing that are undertaking to test DVD products. These three types of testing aim to test (1) functionality, (2) quality and (3) compatibility. The functionality testing of a DVD product aims to confirm that the navigation paths through the various menus and, ultimately, to the various digital content, is as intended. This test is typically achieved by a person using the disc and performing a number of tests and checks dictated by, for example, a functionality test plan. The functionality test plan comprises a list of features or actions that a user of a disc under test should be able to perform. The test plan investigates whether or not various tests have been met and whether or not the response to various actions were as anticipated. The functionality test plan might be used in conjunction with a flowchart that shows the navigation paths through the menus and various audiovisual assets stored on the test disc.
It will be appreciated that this is a labour intensive and time-consuming process. As the navigation complexity of the content of a DVD increases and as the number of assets used by the navigation structure or navigation process increases, it becomes impractical to test every possible navigation path. Therefore, a tester usually concentrates on a statistically significant subset of all possible navigation paths of the disc in determining whether or not the disc meets the test plan. However, using a small sample or test space to decide whether or not a disc operates as intended is risky in that errors might still exist in some untested portions of the content.
It is an object of embodiments of the present invention at least to mitigate some of the problems of the prior art.